Heuvelton honors championship soccer teams

HEUVELTON - Lifetime memories were savored, sustained and chronicled in statistics, awards, shows of emotion, momentos and power point videos on Thursday night as Heuvelton Central School recognized and celebrated the best fall season in school history.

The HCS Girls and Boys Soccer teams combined to produce a regular season and postseason championship, two NAC West Division Offensive MVPs and New York State Scholar-Athlete Team Award contingents involving a total of 36 players.

GIRLS SOCCER

Coach Gus Burns commended his 14-3-1 Lady Bulldogs for the extreme dual achievement of winning the NAC West Division Championship at 12-1-1 and fashioning a New York State Scholar-Athlete Team Award (90 average-above) involving all 23 players.

We won the NAC West title for a third straight year, we have had an NAC West MVP for eight straight years and in my 10 years here we are 124-46-14, said Burns.

We have a great tradition here and we plan to keep it going.

Orchestrating outstanding team chemistry was Team Captain Ashlyn Piercey, an NAC Sportsmanship Award recipient, who received the Coachs Award from Coach Burns who called her the best captain he has been associated with in his 10-year tenure at HCS.

The Bulldogs featured three First Team and three Second Team NAC West Division All-Stars. Alexis Weidner, who scored a Section 10 high 28 goals with eight assists, was honored as the NAC West Offensive MVP and Hannah Thornhill and Ali Scalone joined her on the First Team.

Second Team selections were Logan Tallman, Maddie St. Pierre and Abbey Basford. St. Pierre was also honored as the teams Outstanding Defensive Player and Tallman was cited as the Outstanding Midfield Player.

Other team awards went to seventh grader Alex Steele as the Rookie of the Year, goaltender Morgan Keenan as the Most Improved Player and Kaitlyn LaShomb as the Outstanding Team Player.

Coach Dave Steele honored his team for creating some of the finest moments in the history of Heuvelton Boys Soccer climaxing with the first Section 10 Class D Championship in Boys Soccer.

We had growth at the end of the season and when Joe McDonnell scored that overtime goal against Madrid-Waddington our first sectional game, we just took off, said Coach Steele.

I really want to thank the parents of our seniors who created a special atmosphere by honoring our seniors and Lisbons seniors when we played Lisbon with the NAC West Division title on the line in final day of the regular season.

The Bulldogs also featured the NAC West Offensive MVP in Aaron Cobb who tallied 17 goals and five assists on the season. Cobb was also honored as the teams Outstanding Offensive Player in a recognition ceremony where two other First Team All-Stars in Jack Tennant and Jon Sloan were named the Outstanding Defensive Midfielder and Outstanding Offensive Midfielder.

Mike Guardino, a Second Team All-Star, was also honored as the Outstanding Offensive Midfielder, Captain Eric Stewart received the Outstanding Team Player Award, goaltender Chris Power received the Coachs Award and Joe McDonnell was named the Most Improved Player.